Thursday, December 30, 2004

Empty

Ok so two in one night compared to none in a week. I must have a lot to say. I have felt spiritually empty for a while now. A small group that basically just didn't happen, and I wasn't a leader at the last Alpha because it's better to do every other one, so you don't get burned out. So I've not really been connected and have had no one to hold me accountable regularly in a while. Thank God for Christian radio! I was late to work this morning, was under a Perry schedule which has no time frame and no kind of hurry for nothing. So I got to hear most of Focus on the Family which Ravi Zacharias spoke. He has got to be the most amazing Christian speaker I've ever heard. Everytime I am lucky enough to hear him I am in awe that after being a christian for over 25 year I am still able to continue to learn and grow. He's indian and has this super cool accent, and he uses big words and sounds as if he's speaking way over my head. But then I scare myself a bit because I totally understand what he's saying. Which to me has to be because God is speaking through him because otherwise I wouldn't understand a word he was saying. Ha Ha! There is so much he said, I wish my brain could record and play it back whenever I wanted to make a profound point to someone. His topic was Mirror for the Soul. There was so much he said in such a short time. But the jest of what I got was how important it is for us to raise our children to live with a moral code based on scripture. God intended for the bible to be the moral law, he designed it so that we could live by it. Humility, Spirituality, and Faith must be carved into our conscience. My hope is that I am raising my son to fight against the moral decay of our world, and that he doesn't get swept up into it.

Tonight his faith like a child was a true display that I am doing something right. As we watched the 20/20 special on the Tsunami, I was able to see true devastation through the eyes of a 7 year old child. His first reaction was, is that going to come here? I assured him "no".
Perry: "Mommy did all that water take away those peoples houses?"
Me: "yes"
Perry: "What about the kids, did it take away their toys?"
Me: "yes"
Perry: "Did some of them die?"
Me: "Yes many of them died."
Perry: "Oh Mommy, that is very sad, it makes me kind of want to cry.'
As I hug him he says "we should pray for them"
Me: Ok when you go to bed we'll pray for them tonight
Perry: "No, I think we should pray for them right now."
So we held hands and prayed. And his special request was "Please Jesus take that giant wave away and don't let it come back again."
We see so much devastation in movies, and 911 was like watching a movie on TV, as was the Tsunami, it's hard to realize how real it is. Until you are thrown into reality by a child with simple questions about life and why things happen. It was only then that I was able to react as one should and cry for the lives that have been lost.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Whoa it's been a while.

Christmas took over my life and I've not blogged in sometime now. The cat vest story was funny enough to sustain my addoring fans for sometime though. The vest was a big hit and not as dreadful as the story made it sound. I did get my shoes. And there is a lovely story behind that adventure. First off a brief run down of the holiday events. God decided to dump an outrageous amount of snow on us a few days before christmas. Probably all the crazy's praying for a White Christmas, be careful what you pray for. Most everyone was stranded in their homes on Thursday because of the 16" of snow on the ground. Many folks were without electricity. Not us, thank God! So since the snow was dumped on Wednesday I didn't make it to the Christmas play at Church, considering it took me 2 hours to get to my hair appointment, trying to make it to church for the play was not a good idea. It ended up being cancelled anyways. That just started the dominoe effect of things that happen to mess up tradition. We usually go to my cousins in Indiana, well they don't believe in snow plows in Indiana so four wheeling through the back roads of Indiana and getting stranded in the middle of nowhere didn't sound fun. So we ventured out and went to the Movies instead, (not a tradition) Polar Express in IMAX 3D very cool! We then came home and had appetizers for dinner, another non-tradition but fun anyways. Perry went to bed with no arguement so he could quickly sleep to greet his presents from Santa in the AM. Ron and I exchanged gifts finally a tradition happens, we always exchange gifts to each other on Christmas eve after Perry goes to bed. His packages were low in numbers since Mr. Last Minute didn't anticipate the snowstorm, and expected me to finish his christmas shopping to myself for him when I ran around early on Christmas eve. Didn't happen! I did however receive Kitchen aid pots and pans.....woooohooo! They have the non-stick surface and the cushion handles. Lucky Lucky me! And even cooler they are red! I got a cookbook and My Fair Lady on DVD also.

Finally on Christmas day a few traditions began to happen. Had to wake Perry up so we could get an early start. Crazy, what kid doesn't have their internal clock set for 5 am on Christmas morning?? We always did. He was delighted with his parade of toys and none too pleased with the gift of clothing from Santa. "I didn't ask for clothes, those are stupid, why would he give me clothes???" Rotten kid, the even more Rotten Nephew Zack was just as displeased with the clothing he received from Grandpa, both boys flung their clothes to the floor in protest. So we didn't thaw the Turkey for Christmas day, and couldn't find a decent ham, so my brother resorted to Holiday Hamburgers! What??? Yep, Holiday Hamburgers, that he burned. MERRY CHRISTMAS....ha ha ha.....We did have a wonderful Christmas Breakfast which we always look forward to. So all was not lost. And we had Jodi's Potatoes and Pumpkin Crunch, so it was all good. We'll be skipping the burgers next year. This was the second year not going to Grandmas (Ron's) and it still stinks. Theres just something about going to Grandma's on Christmas that just seems so right. But dysfunctional family issues keep us from going. We did however make it to Geegaw Migrages house the day after. In regular people language that would be Grandma Mugrage, which is my best friend Abby's parents house. Love going there because theres always a ton of kids running crazy and Perry just falls right into the mix. Then you just hang out chat, and play a board game usually. Didn't have to miss the Vineyard play completely, they did it on Sunday during church so I wasn't completely disappointed.



Snowstorm 2004 Posted by Hello

Friday, December 17, 2004


Festive Cat print t-shirt that's going directly back to the store! Posted by Hello

Thursday, December 16, 2004

What the???

OMG.....what's going on? Have I become that person? Has it happened? I went to the mall yesterday evening after work, went to sears got Perry some new Sketchers, and eyed some super cool Sketchers for myself that I did not purchase, but wanted really really bad. They are the bomb, I want the brown ones! Ok so I take Perry's shoe's back and exchange them for the right size today. That was all I was going to do, I looked at my shoes again. And thought Lazarus sells Sketchers maybe they have them on sale. So I go out in the mall. And thought as I crossed the threshhold of Sears and the mall.....Lazarus is way far away from Sears. Do I need those shoes. I always need shoes, but those shoes??? Then I spy a place called CJ Banks...hummm....sells plus sized clothing. Ok time for a side story........
I have lunch with a couple ladies almost everyday, they are 10 years older than me, but I won't hold that against them. They are wonderfully nice, respectable women. They enjoy coconut deserts (yuck) and like to wear festive clothing. Nothing wrong with that, I just look pretty dorky in festive clothing. At least that's what I think. They look, festive in their festive clothing. I own one Christmas sweater, that sometimes I wear during the holidays sometimes I don't. It's not overly festive or flashy, just your average Christmas zip up cardigan. Well these women, and they aren't the only ones. They have all kinds of festive clothing for all kinds of holidays and seasons. I generally recycle the same 5 outfits from week to week, and it wouldn't be uncommon for me to wear Monday's khaki's again on Friday. This I would imagine would be unheard of to them. However I think they are awear of my fashion sense and lack of festive clothing and accept me for who I am, strippedy socks and all. End of side story.......

Back to CJ Banks. Apparently the festive clothing ladies, often buy their festive sweaters at Christopher & Banks. I've been in there once, and didn't see anything I was drawn to, and left, this was years ago. Well now they have CJ Banks which is the same store for plus sized women, apparently the country is getting fatter me included. I had been considering getting a new sweater not necessarily a festive holiday sweater but a new sweater. They had all kinds of nice soft lovely sweaters. Solid colors as well as some prints. A nice sweater with a dog on it, and dog bone buttons....yeah I'll need to pass on that one. I was drawn to this particular rack of sweater vests, that were a brown and black color. It was a christmas sweater vest, with stick figure cats embroidreied on it, they were cool and artistic looking which I usually like, but not on something I am wearing. But this was a cool unique looking holiday sweater vest, nobody would have one like this. So the battle to win me over was on. It looks nothing like the Reindeer Sweater from Brigette Jones Diary so I'm good. They had my size, it was one sale. So I carry it around for a minute. The whole time thinking WHAT AM I DOING? I look for a turtleneck to match, held a few colors up to it and nothing look good. Go to the clearence rack, and well look they have a white long sleeve t-shirth that coordinates perfectly with the cats on the sweater. And it's on sale. So all the sudden I am at the register. And I am buying this coordinating outfit! Oh it gets better. Those of you that know me I don't generally talk to strangers unless I have to. I mean I am not rude, I'll say please and thank you or have a nice evening but generally unless it's appropriate I don't talk to folks. Well this lady, wants to talk ABOUT THE CAT SWEATER VEST.
saleslady: "Oh I think you got the last one."
me: "no there was one more."
saleslady: "it's really cute." (should have been my clue right there NOT FOR YOU)
me: silence
saleslady: "Do you have cats?"
me: "I have a cat."
saleslady: " Yeah me too, well 12 of them."
me: "WOW!"
saleslady : Crazy cat lady laughter
saleslady: "What color is your cat?"
me: (at this point a little bit scared and wondering where I am exactly) "oh she's a tabby, so she's black, brown and white.
saleslady: "oh very pretty, does she have long hair or short hair."
me: "short" (wanting to cry, barf or run out of the place.)
other crazy sales lady: "yeah she pretty much buys anything we have with cats on it."
me: smirk..."oh" Are these people serious???
Crazy cat sales lady starts to fold my items I've somehow purchased against my will. She then pulls out a shelf thing and lays them gently on some tissue paper, folds the tissue paper around the cat clothing and places a sticker neatly in the center to hold it together, then puts it into a lovely bag that looks like a gift bag. Odd.....they don't do that at walmart! I've apparently stepped into a high class store. Total cost for my festive clothing $42 which included tissue paper, gift bag, and a shiny gold sticker. So I call my brother on the way home, just to see if what just happened was really against normal Jodi antics. He immediately started yelling at me that I needed to turn around and take them back. As soon as the words "cat head buttons" came out of my mouth, I knew I was in trouble. I stopped to get Perry from my mom's she thought my sweater vest was very nice, with the matching t-shirt. She would though she wears sweatshirts with doilies sewn on to them, and she owns more than her fair share of festive clothing. Once Perry was in bed I talked to my best friend regarding my purchase, and her comments were. First she gasped as if she was stabbed, and then said it's happened, you've become a festive sweater wearer. This can't happen you need a shopping assistant to keep this from happening. Well when I tried on the sweater vest with the matching shirt underneath, and looked in the mirror. Immediately, I was like what the heck, that looks insane! Theres way too many cats going on. And it says "meow" all over the shirt. I took that off with the quickness. The vest is fine, I tried it on with a red long sleeved t-shirt and it's ok, still a bit flashy so I may have to hunt down my black turtleneck so as not to draw attention to myself. But the t-shirt is going directly back to the store. I just pray crazy cat lady isn't working.
Not to fear faithful friends, I promise to never own, easter, halloween, or valentines day clothing. I'll include a picture of the print that's on the shirt I am returning.

Monday, December 06, 2004


Baby Kylie Posted by Hello

Gotta see the Baby!

Ok my brother and his wife finally had their baby. My sister-in-law makes it appear to be so freakin easy. How does one push out a 9lb 10oz baby and walk out of the hospital 2 days later?? Nuts I tell ya. She beautiful though. I've not been to see her since she's been home. Gotta give some folks some space to get used to having a new critter around, I'll go this week sometime. Oh her name is Kylie Morgan. Good name, but dag how's my brother going to veto, his sisters middle name, not cool little brother. Kylie Joelle would have sounded nice, and looks cool too. Somebody will use it someday. I'll post a picture in a second.